(7/29/2002)
The Bali Butterfly Foundation (Yayasan Kupu Kupu) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works to improve the lives of physically and mentally disabled children, adolescents, and adults on the island of Bali.
Founded and managed by Ms. Bergonia Lopez a Spanish nurse who visited Bali on holiday and stayed to help poor village handicapped children, she has managed to collect world-wide support that provides housing, food, medical attention, school supplies, wheelchairs and other desperately needed medical equipment.
Abilities of People With Different Abilities
In cooperation with Bali's luxurious Amankila Resort in Karangasem, East Bali, a group of 15 young boys and girls afflicted with polio from the Yayasan Kupu Kupu will display their works of arts and handicrafts from August 01 until 31, 2002, in the library of the Resort. Refusing to label the children as disabled, Bergonia describes the boys and girls as people with "different abilities," giving birth to the exhibition's name of "Abilities of People with Disabilities."
In Bali's less affluent villages children with sever physical and mental challenges face a most uncertain fate. Money for medical care, special training, wheelchairs, braces, and even basic schooling is simply not available. Before the concerned intervention of the Yayasan Kupu Kupu, these Children, branded as "backward," oftentimes never managed to venture outside their family compound. As the result of the training and support services of the foundation, many children suddenly blossom, demonstrating skills and intellectual appitudes that amaze both themselves and their surrounding community.
Be sure to visit the Amankila Resort during the month of August to see "Abilities of People with Disabilities" exhibition.
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